Australian Library of Parliament Report on Firearms

The Parliamentary Library in Australia recently published a "Background Note" entitled Firearms in Australia: a guide to electronic resources:

"On 28 April 1996, 35 people were killed and 18 others were wounded at Port Arthur in Tasmania by an assailant using a semi-automatic rifle. In response, The Australasian Police Ministers’ Council convened a special meeting on 10 May 1996 and agreed to a national plan for the regulation of firearms—the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms. This agreement banned self-loading rifles and self-loading and pump-action shotguns, introduced a nationwide registration of firearms along with limitations to firearm ownership, and led to the Australian firearms buyback scheme."

(...)

"This brief is a guide to some of the literature, statistics and information on firearm ownership, firearm offences, firearm controls and government policies since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996".

For a comparative perspective, here are some earlier Library Boy posts on the topic of firearms legislation and gun control:

• Gun Control Resources (December 10, 2005): "On Thursday, as part of its platform in the January 23, 2006 federal elections, the Liberal Party of Canada proposed a sweeping national ban on handguns (...) To understand the debate, here are various resources [list of resources from Canada, the UK, United States, Australia, international]"
• Reverse Onus in Gun-Related Bail Hearings (January 4, 2006): "In the aftermath of the Boxing Day gangbanger shoot-out in the middle of Canada's busiest shopping street (Toronto's Yonge St.) that left an innocent 15-year old dead, officials such as Prime Minister Paul Martin have called for reforms to Canadian bail practices. They want to to change bail conditions so people charged with gun offences can be kept behind bars unless they could show good cause for being released, something known as 'reverse onus' (...) There are already a number of offences enumerated under section 515(6) of the Criminal Code that place the onus on the accused to justify bail. The section lists offences, such as commiting a crime while on bail, as part of a criminal organization, terrorism-related offences, narcotics-related offences, etc."
• New Compendium of U.S. Gun Laws (August 23, 2006): "A group called Legal Community Against Violence, a San Francisco- based public interest law centre dedicated to preventing gun violence, has just released a comprehensive overview of U.S. federal and state laws on gun control. The report looks at gun laws in a number of broad areas: classes of weapons, restrictions on sales and transfers, gun dealers, gun ownership, consumer and child safety, crime detection (ballistic identification, retention of sales records, background checks)."
• Updated Library of Parliament Report on Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Gun Crimes (March 10, 2007): "The document includes sections on: History of Minimum Sentences for Firearm Offences; Constitutionality of Mandatory Minimum Sentences; Effect of Mandatory Minimum Sentences on Gun Crime ...; Description and Analysis"
• Criminal Intelligence Service 2007 Annual Report on Organized Crime in Canada (August 18, 2007): "Canada's Criminal Intelligence Service has just released its latest annual report on the activities of organized crime in Canada. This year's report contains a special feature section on the illegal firearms market."